The burden of reconstructing a strong foundation for survival of democracy is on the shoulder of the current generation of leadership and Nepali citizens.
– By Dr. J Koirala
All Nepali living in Nepal and overseas as well as the friends of Nepal around the globe are closely watching the current developments in Nepal. The great news is that our country seems to be moving forward with the peace process. Over half a century long struggle and political instability have hurt the overall growth of Nepal. Not surprisingly we are all getting cynical of the whole political process. It is difficult to believe in having a secure and stable future anymore. Everything appears to be just temporary and transient. This seems to be true for most of the underdeveloped countries which go through same kind of cycles like Nepal between transient democracy and dictatorship. The main reason behind this is a lack of understanding of real meaning of democracy and failure to follow its principles. This has led to poor governance, continued violation of personal rights, and poor socioeconomic development of the country.
It is very important to understand the meaning of democracy before defining correct values for the governance and making a constitution. It is also important to protect and maintain these values by ruling parties no matter who is in power. The informed people and political watchdogs, such as news media as well as opposition parties, should always weigh the government and leaders by how good a job they are doing in keeping these values intact. It is difficult to keep democracy intact without transparency in the practice of the governance and without an honest media that the people can trust.
The literal meaning of democracy is rule by the people which was derived from the Greek demos = “people,” and kratos = “rule”. Democracy is a government in which power and civic responsibility are exercised by all citizens, directly or through their freely elected representatives. Democracy is also a set of principles and practices that protect human freedom. In other words it is the institutionalization of freedom.
The core meaning of democracy should also be the core value of democracy- “PEOPLE”. Democracy is people’s power and this power underlies in the individual rights. The most fundamental principle of a democracy should be centered on protecting this personal right. All other values, principles and laws should be constructed around it. Protecting an individual citizen’s right, irrespective of the person’s class, race, ethnicity, gender, age, social status, economic status, occupational status, religion or country of origin, should be the top priority of a democracy. It is also important not to violate other person’s right while protecting or practicing a person’s or a group’s own right. For example, a person or group protesting against a government by picketing on a busy traffic would violate the rest of the individual’s rights for movement. It will be violating the fundamental principle of democracy.
A democracy should look at each individual as an equal unit. In order to protect individual rights the constitution should come with a set of defined fundamental rights of the people of the country and mandate the government to work around these principles while making plans and implementing them. The government and the legal system should be made capable of implementing the system to protect these fundamental rights of the citizens. A democratic law should be applied equally to a prime minister, a priest or an army general as much as it applies to a common citizen. Similarly, the democratic governance and legal system should be able to protect violation of individual rights without any discrimination. If done in an unbiased manner, the people will be helping to enforce these laws against the violators.
The current political progress in Nepal is quite encouraging but unfortunately a careful observation clearly indicates that the parties involved in the talk process are in fact centered on the values constructed to protect each party’s narrow agenda.
Although each government and party can come up with their own way of planning and implementing development and economic programs these should not be violating the fundamental principles. For example, if a party wants to go with capitalistic democracy, every careful consideration should be made not to violate the rights of backward areas of country in getting equal share of the development and benefit from such a move. Similarly if a person commits a crime violating another individual’s fundamental rights, there should be an open access at the court of law for the victim to ask for help. This should be available to all citizens irrespective of their social or financial abilities. This open access policy is important for building trust and the maintenance of democracy. A crime should be considered as a crime whether it is in the name of religion, political belief or other personal gains. Each individual case like this should be looked at the court of law and judged based on individual situation and without violating the fundamental principles.
The primary goal of protecting individual rights should be the basis of a country’s democratic constitution and all the other principles should evolve around it. For example, an equal right principle would necessitate a nation to provide equally accessible education plan for the country. An individual’s right to high school education, for example, would not only make schools accessible to all but to reach a goal of 100% literate citizens the government will also acquire rights to monitor and enforce the children who do not go to school. Whereas the adults may argue that they have rights to decide whether to send their children to school or have them do their chores at home or farm, a law to protect individual child’s right for education would force all the parents and guardians to send their children to school. If the government cannot offer free education to all children, which should not be the goal in general unless it is an affluent country, it can subsidize education on a sliding scale basis, i.e. based on the parent’s or guardian’s income. In a country like Nepal where thousands of children live with other types of guardians helping their household chores so that their parents can be paid, the government should make these surrogate guardians liable for their education. Ideally speaking, this should be considered as a child labor and discouraged.
Similarly, while making plans for healthcare, another fundamental human right, the healthcare institutions should be equally accessible to all. It should not be made free but used in a sliding scale basis. Socioeconomic development of a country should also be planned based on equal opportunity principles.
The current political progress in Nepal is quite encouraging but unfortunately a careful observation clearly indicates that the parties involved in the talk process are in fact centered on the values constructed to protect each party’s narrow agenda. This is a wrong trend which will lead to a self serving constitution and a fragile democracy leading to the previous cycles that the country has seen over past half a century.
The burden of reconstructing a strong foundation for survival of democracy is on the shoulder of the current generation of leadership and Nepali citizens. We all need to watch the leaders carefully and help them make right decisions and do the right things to take our country in the right direction.
(Dr. Koirala, is the Chair, America Nepal Medical Foundation in the USA and can be reached at [email protected])
(Editor’s Note: Nepalis, wherever they live, as well as friends of Nepal around the globe are requested to contribute their views/opinions/recollections etc. on issues concerning present day Nepal to the Guest Column of Nepalnews. Length of the article should not be more than 1,000 words and may be edited for the purpose of clarity and space. Relevant photos as well as photo of the author may also be sent along with the article. Please send your write-ups to [email protected])